Global warming due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane

Book · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:182802

Ghosh, A B; Reddy, B M ^[1]; Sharma, R C ^[2]

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1. National Physical Lab., New Delhi (India). Radio Science Division
2. Dronachrya Government College, Gurgaon (India)

The possibility of global warming due to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide is now well established. Recently, effect of atmospheric methane has also been seen on global warming. Solar radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and earth`s surface providing the energy required by many dynamical and chemical processes. For maintaining equilibrium in the climate, this absorbed solar radiation must be balanced by outgoing terrestrial thermal radiation. The partial trapping of this thermal radiation by absorbing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere tends to increase the temperature than otherwise would have without the atmosphere. The present paper studies the measurement of carbon dioxide and methane using ground based solar infrared spectroradiometer which continuously monitors the infrared radiation in the infrared region of carbon dioxide and methane spectrum. Almost two years of data have been collected for the 1992--1993 period. Taking into consideration, the radiative extinction due to Rayleigh molecular scattering, the scattering due to presence of aerosols in the atmosphere and the strong absorption due to carbon dioxide and methane at the frequencies of 4,379 nm and 7,675 nm respectively, an inversion technique is developed to retrieve atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane content. There is a positive correlation seen between the concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane with atmospheric temperatures at 1,000 mb, 700 mb, 500 mb and 100 mb levels.

• OSTI ID: 182802
• Report Number(s): CONF-940426--; ISBN 0-923204-11-3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
CARBON DIOXIDE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
METHANE